Well then, I just started a read of this, as I'm slowly but surely going through the McCaffrey books I haven't read yet (there are a lot, not because I haven't read many, but because she wrote so many!).

This one I'm struggling a bit to get through, feels rather dated, and it's way outside what I typically read genre wise. Very slow in unfolding and there's nothing except naked relationships driving the plot.

In a way it's a period piece from a dated time point so it's a bit tough to relate to. I wonder how much she put into this based on her father though. He was military, as I recall, and a lot of this book is reminiscing about a father who just passed. I believe this is written similar time period to the Ship Who Sang too. Please chime in with anything pertinent, or feel free to read it along with me It's pretty short, so shouldn't occupy a ton of your time.

I can understand that you feel it's dated, you will have that feeling with most of her romances. She has been writing for a long time .

By the by and even if I felt the same when I read them first, many years ago, I still feel most of them have a good story. I always look for how and with which parts the story ties in with her personal life, because, trust me, they all do. One more than the other but at the heart of plot or subplots are always things Anne experience herself in one way. She definitely wrote from experience, very much more so in the romances et al than in the science fiction but still.

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Definitely there's the human/animal relationship (bit of a theme much with her? ) aspect of the book which is interesting.

I don't think the world war 2 period piece aspect of it is dated, mind you, just some of the word choices as well as the worldviews of the characters just have that sorta old story doesn't seem quite real feel to it.

I'm about halfway through now. Pacing is really slow going with a lot of cooking and chatting as this mystery builds up. Are most romance novels as a genre like this? Have to admit I'm not so informed in that realm.

Well I finished the book. I have to say I found it less "romance-ey" than I thought it was going to be. Assumed there would have been a little more smooching going on in the book and less chatting to uncover murder mystery. Interesting read, though not so much my thing.